Just southeast of Erfurt’s old town is a residential street packed with houses with unique doorways. I admired them every time I walked from my Couchsurfing hosts’ home into the center.

With my amazing Couchsurfing hosts Nathalia and Marcel, I was able to try some delicious vegan food, including a vegan spin on a traditional German dinner. It was also federweißer season, so I tried some from the Saxony region.

The castle of Meißen is the oldest in Saxony and makes it look like a storybook town. It’s also known for having the first porcelain manufacturer (established in 1710) in Europe.

What drew me to České Budějovice in the first place was the original Budweiser brewery. But the city is so much more than that. Spending four days there was a good call: I loved exploring the local cuisine in the many ways it was available. And Hotel Bohemia was an excellent home base: located on the north end of city center, it was an easy walk from all kinds of tasty establishments.

České Budějovice is not usually on most people’s radars when they think of visiting the Czech Republic, but I spent a relaxing four days here while taking in all the small-town charm it had to offer.

I just have to say that a benefit that probably wasn’t advertised about iOS 10 is that photos now follow the original camera file system when uploaded, rather than all being called “image.jpeg”. And why does this matter?

Mom put me in charge of where we would eat in Český Krumlov, so I did a bit of homework on Foursquare and my trusty USE-IT map. We ended up going to two restaurants, both of which served traditional Czech cuisines. Since this UNESCO town is the second-most popular tourist destination in the country outside of Prague, English-speaking staff and menus were readily available.

I hadn’t originally planned to visit Český Krumlov since I had heard its popularity with tourists is second only to Prague. But since my family happened to be going there for a day and a half and it is only a 30-minute bus ride from České Budějovice, I overcame momentum and got a €3 round-trip ticket on a RegioJet bus and took a day-trip there.

It turned out that I was on the same bus as my family was taking from Prague to Český Krumlov, so I was surprised when I heard my dad call my Chinese name when I got on the bus. What a small world we live in! Here’s what we got to see, other than the street art we found.

Thanks to Hotel Bohemia, I had a helpful map from USE-IT that led me to Ukradená Galerie, whose first outdoor street art installment started in Český Krumlov. So yeah, I dragged my family during my day-trip to see graffiti. I think they enjoyed it! We saw some other street art later in the day elsewhere, too.

In Olomouc, you can bet your bottom dollar that I enjoyed some Moravian wine, which accounts for 96% of the country’s supply. Traditional Czech food tended to be affordable, thanks to the population of university students.